For Immediate Release
March 16, 2016
Contact: Alexis Nava Teodoro, alexis@ndlon.org
Santa Ana City Council Demands ICE Back Off from Immigrant Resident, Accountability for O.C. Sheriff’s Illegal Collusion with ICE
Santa Ana, CA—On Tuesday evening, the City Council of Santa Ana unanimously adopted a resolution demanding federal immigration enforcement (ICE) not deport local resident Samuel Sixtos and instead increase the use of “prosecutorial discretion” to keep families together. The resolution called for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) to be held accountable for illegally turning over Sixtos to ICE in violation of the TRUST Act (AB 4).
Samuel Sixtos, a local resident of Santa Ana, was arrested in 2014 on a warrant for an unpaid driving-without-a-license ticket. He was held in OCSD custody for over 48 hours and then illegally turned over to ICE where he spent nearly 6 months in the controversial Adelanto Detention Center. Sixtos was released only after a prolonged campaign that garnered support from local, state, and federal representatives, and Sixtos himself went on hunger strike.
While Sixtos has been released, he remains in deportation proceedings. The city’s resolution reads, in part:
[There] is consensus that United States immigration laws are outdated, unjust and in need of reform… Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Sara Saldana, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, and President Obama are urged to stop the deportation of Samuel Sixtos…
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department should be held accountable for violating Samuel Sixtos’ rights…
“In the face of an intransigent deportation machine, cities and counties have a responsibility to be proactive about protecting their residents from reckless federal policies,” said Alexis Nava Teodoro, organizer with National Day Laborer Organizing Network and member of RAIZ, the working-class and migrant-led organization that accompanied the Sixtos family through their ordeal.
“ICE is a rogue agency that has been unwilling to apply its own policies in good faith. It’s time localities make clear they will not be complicit in the business of deportations,” said Nava.
The City of Santa Ana is the municipal seat of Orange County, the last jurisdiction in California with a 287(g) agreement, a controversial program that embeds ICE in local jails and ‘deputizes’ local law enforcement officials to become deportation agents.
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